Aside from development, some of my responsibilities up to this point have already included project management, staff management and proposal writing. Now I am joining the senior management team and taking on more strategic responsibilities, including determining the direction of many of the company’s future plans and projects.
There are several paths I am looking at for preparing myself for my new responsibilities. I thought I’d start a discussion as out of the demographic on HN, I am sure I am not the only one in such a situation.
Self-teaching directions I’ve been looking at so far are: - Business Analyst processes. - Agile planning - Agile requirements modeling - Effective proposals - Business development
Although there is certainly no absence of literature in this area, I've found it hard to find good recommendations. Does anyone have any suggestions for specific books in those areas, or any other areas that would benefit a developer taking on a more strategic role?
I personally think the concept of apprenticeship is lacking in the technology industry and we loose out on what other older professions have with clearer career paths because of their established practices of guiding people though their careers. That said I've seen it abused too so there always needs to be balance in these things.
I personally coach about five people (for free) in my current company and they come from all areas of the org not just my group. I was very lucky in the early days to have several great mentors in my life who helped me and I feel it's my job to pay that back now in the latter years of my career.
Books are wonderful but nothing beats interacting with successful people.
Seems easier said than done. I wouldn't want to share details of what I do with random people. Probably not with coworkers either unless it's strictly related to the job at hand, but at that point the advice they can give you is also more limited. Also, you need to find someone with more experience than you, so you don't have much to bring to the deal.
> Books are wonderful but nothing beats interacting with successful people.
That I can certainly agree with.
I would however start today not with a book but a clean sheet of paper. Take a long hard look at you, your decisions and imagine explaining it all to a judge in five years time. What bits will you be proud of, which embarrassed by and which will land you in jail.
If I was to give five points I wish I had done more of:
- Always be hiring
- Always be filling the pipeline
- Always cut more out than you think is possible. Do less better.
- never ever lie, and stand up and speak the truth as needed
- know where the money is going
> Seems easier said than done.
Point made, it's work, and successful people will tell you that the road ahead is full of work. Take the challenge, figure out how to find and develop a trusting relation with someone who will be able to help you progress in your career.
> Probably not with coworkers either..
Yes I would suggest outside the org or if the org is big enough someone who isn't directly up your reporting tree. At one job I picked an exec who had lot more experience then me but he was in finance so he wasn't worried about my motivations, I didn't want his job nor did he want mine.
Endeavor runs a mentorship program, I know some entrepreneurs which have been mentored, and they have been very happy with their mentors:
There are other, more local mentorship programs (I know some in my home country but I don't know where you're located).
I've found a few books really useful:
* The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-the-checklist-ma...)
* Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-drive)
* Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7696135-making-ideas-hap...)
* Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6828896-delivering-happi...)
* Rework (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework)
These days I get the most value from articles and videos. Here is a list of my recommended articles on Medium, which might be useful - https://medium.com/@nickboyce/has-recommended. Some great stuff in the list recommended by ravivyas too.
Edit: Something else I have been experimenting with is buying executive summaries of major books, in order to familiarise myself with as many perspectives as possible.
There are also some really great mini books like Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007P5N8D4/ref=oh_aui_d_d...)
Also, I haven't tried these yet, but there are a number of subscription services available for summaries like http://www.summary.com/ and http://www.getabstract.com/en/
The other way of cheating is by watching talks by the authors, which give you the key concepts from the book in an hour. For example Simon Sinek presenting Why Leaders Eat Last (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRcHdeUG9Y)
Made to Stick looks great. Added to my wishlist, thanks.
Agile/XP practices are a good starting place in-between cowboy programming and micro-management hell -- as long as you don't take them as a recipe book. They're simply best practices that you can and should learn. Then prune/modify as necessary. There are really too many books to list separately. I'd advise joining a local Agile User's Group and noticing who has their shit in one sock. Then find out what they're doing. You can also bring in external coaches.
You need a couple of good books on the people part of things. I can guarantee you that the people part of things is where you'll screw up. "Drive" is really good. http://amzn.to/1qtZdEd So is PeopleWare http://amzn.to/1iBnasO
For strategic stuff, especially in a growing company, you're going to have to master large work queues without having them eat you alive. If you'll allow me to self-promote, my Backlogs series is geared exactly towards this problem. http://tiny-giant-books.com/backlogs.htm
One observation: as you grow, it's not enough that you pay extremely careful attention to whom you hire. You also need to create an on-boarding system where new hires can learn and adopt the culture -- things like pair programming, how the build works, good coding etiquette, and so on. Setting the table for strategy to work is actually more important than whatever the strategy is.
Second observation: I imagine you're going to be swimming in business book recommendations. Business books are like dieting books: everybody has a few favorites. (I imagine this is because the material inside matches how they already feel). Better to identify specific areas, like Agile Requirements Modeling, and find books targeting those areas. Then look for practical advice. Otherwise you'll just have a ton of books that you'll spend hundreds of hours reading and not really have much to show for it at the end of the process.
and Peopleware: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321934113/
for those who are worried about clicking url shortners
I also heartily agree with him that lots of business books are best digested as summaries - look them up on wikipedia, for instance. The fundamental problem is that many have a simple idea, but you can't sell a 10 page book. So it gets fluffed up with lots of case studies and extra material until it's long enough to sell as a book.
One of my favorite books when stepping into a new role is M. Watkins, "The First 90 Days", which is very helpful in formalizing an effective approach to succeeding quickly when in a new management role.
It is worth trying to get some education in people management. While much of it is common-sense, it's worthwhile covering the basics -- the applicable laws, managing conflicts, that sort of thing. I have yet to find a good, practical book on organizational engineering (if anyone has a suggestion, please post it), but this is an area that I feel someone in your role should seek to understand well, because it has a big impact on the success of a business.
One of the most important, fundamental skills for a senior level manager is understanding finance. I recommend B. Knight, "Financial Intelligence" as a primer.
My favorite book on business strategy is M. Porter "Competitive Strategy", however, this book and all other business strategy books should be taken with a large grain of salt. They often suffer from survivorship bias, being applicable only to certain industries and times, and in at least one famous case, allegedly faking the data used to draw their conclusions. I treat business strategy books as leisure reading that simply provides another perspective.
In startups, human interaction is most important more so than a huge corporation because both employee and employer needs to understand the importance of each other. Make sure you treat them right and make sure they are excited,valued and well treated.
Get a mentor, you need to keep them engaged, request with specific questions, ask for suggestions. No one wants to receive a specific mail asking me to be a mentor. they would rather send a note/ give a suggestion which will help you.
All the very best for you and company, and keep us posted on how your journey is.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Drucker-Management-Essen...
The Effective Executive (Drucker) has been by far the best book on management I've ever read. No fluff. http://www.amazon.com/The-Effective-Executive-Definitive-Har...
It introduces a specific method to write concise, effective business documents. Then it shows how you can use the method to critique your own thinking.
Finally, one late night, sitting across from my managing director (the leader of a prestigious boutique pharma-consulting firm), I asked him rather bluntly, "How did you learn to speak so well?" He gave me a rather blank stare, and thought for a little while. "Ah!" he exclaimed, jumping up from his desk and darting over to his bookcase. After a little rummaging, lo and behold, he pulled out an old copy of the Pyramid Principle. I leafed through the book and found a number of notes and highlights as he explained to me that what I held was the single most influential book he'd ever read. He told me to read it, not as a way to structure presentations or emails (although it helps there), but as a new lifestyle. Fold the ideas and principles into your very being, so as to become second nature, and you'll never have trouble communicating again.
It's a must-read book.
The author approaches communication from the principle of Gestalt psychology and really helps one understand how our minds communicate.
When it comes to Management, I have to second vellum's advice and go with Drucker:
http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperb...
Classic (Mad Men era) of Marketing is ruled by Ogilvy:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Advertising-Man-David-Ogil...
However, I cannot stress enough the role of analytics in modern business strategy/marketing and Kaushik's book is the best:
http://www.amazon.com/Web-Analytics-2-0-Accountability-Centr...
I highly recommend it. It's clear, intelligent, properly defines what strategy is (which most other books fail to do) and isn't, and how to go about designing and implementing it. It's very low on bullshit and very high on examples and insights from both history and business.
He defines strategy incorrectly. He means "tactic". I think the problem is that "strategy" sounds more important, but it irks me every time someone confuses the two. (The US military thinks the difference is merely one of the size of the operation, which is also wrong.)
Nelson's strategy at Trafalgar was to have a decisive battle versus a skirmish. He wanted to destroy the French navy (and was willing to risk everything to do it).
Your comment is thoroughly unfair on a whole book full of insight and useful, actionable advice that can be applied profitably to competitive situations in business. You criticise one example, saying it does not fit your definition of strategy vs tactics (a topic the book doesn't even cover), and appear to discard the entire book based on that. This is a very unfair way to treat a book and I encourage you to think about what you write, when posting negative criticism of this sort.
Your comment is akin to implying that 2001 is a crappy movie because it doesn't fully explore the effects of void on the exposed human body. Yes, that's true, but it's entirely irrelevant.
For what it's worth, at the core of the Good/Bad Strategy book is a useful definition of strategy as a combination of three things:
1) An insightful diagnosis of the situation
2) A set of guidelines/policies/plans to take advantage of the diagnosis
3) Coherent action to implement that plan
In merely laying out and explaining this definition, this book enables the reader to correctly make the difference between useless fluff and actual strategy. Rumelt then explores all three stages and, in particular, spends a lot of time (rightly) on presenting tools that can assist in generating the insightful diagnosis (aka "aha moment") that is a prerequisite to good strategy.
Irrespective of whether it is "strategy" or "tactics", Nelson's key insightful diagnosis, according to the book, was that his seamen were more experienced at firing cannons in choppy waters than the more numerous Spanish/French Armada. Based on a "fair fight" situation, the British would have lost. But Nelson leveraged his insight into a plan that enabled him to pit the British fleet's strengths (skill at shooting in choppy waters) against the Spanish/French armada's weakness (lack of same skill), instead of pitting the British's weakness (numbers) vs the French/Spanish's strength (again numbers). That insight won the battle dramatically and set up the British Navy's domination of the seas for centuries.
Conversely, saying that Nelson's "strategy" was to have a decisive battle vs a skirmish is, by Rumelt's definition, a great example of "bad strategy". There's no insight in that - just a wish, a hope. In short, "Let's win with a decisive battle" is wishful thinking, in the same way that "Our strategy is to grow our usage numbers by 6% every week" or "Our strategy is to double our turnover next year" are wishful thinking.
Strategy begins with an insight of how to change a losing situation into a winning one, and follows with plans and actions to take advantage of that insight. Whether you then call it strategy, tactics, or some term of your choosing, is fairly irrelevant. The point is, this book presents, with great detail and tools, a solid way of thinking about strategy that can actually be useful to someone who actually needs to "be more strategic" and, as the OP appears to be, is confused about what that even means.
Sorry for the rant - I just felt irritated by the brief and unfair put-down of my heartfelt recommendation of this book in what I perceived as an unfair way.
I have not found a good clear definition for "strategy" and "tactic". Could you give yours?
I'd read everything on that site.
1. Follow people in the same field 2. Ready up on blogs and posts : I use Zite, Flipboard and medium 3. A book that helped me to a large extent is Good to great by Jim Collins (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/00...)
Also The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman http://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-World-Class-Business-Educ...
4. Video from people in the same field. 5. This article https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/50-articles-and-books-that-wi...
Some great tools:
1. Trello - Project/product and pretty much manage any thing 2. Qlikview - Data Analysis : Excel on Steroids
It's a very short list, but I am learning on the job :)
and try to see how practical tips both give for decision making. Art of War is also good, but I'd prefer Clausewitz since it's much more straightforward.
And read this masterpiece http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/reports-downloads/the-testa...
I've never worked in a startup, but I run my teams as if they were small, fairly-independent-but-often-symbiotic entities. I started as a dev back in '99 and am one step below CIO in a 45,000 employee large corporation. If you'd ever like to chat about your problems or bounce ideas off someone, I'd be happy to.
To that end, I strongly recommend Michael Porter, who literally wrote the book on modern "Competitive Strategy". There is no other single source of strategic theory that is better than this. Anybody that has taken a b-school class on strategy worth their tuition will recall concepts like Porter's 5-forces.
Other answers seem to offer more recently offered books and some might dare to argue his frameworks are dated but really it's in a robust, tried-and-true-kind of way. Other books that try to cover defining strategy, value chain, industry analysis are often derivative of his work.
If you don't end up reading it at least get a list of his key concepts and google the shit out of them. They all seem like a "duh, i knew that" on paper, but you should have these theories in your back pocket whenever you need to formulate a battleplan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_generic_strategies
http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Indust...
In terms of agile - I believe that scrum and related are too operational-related and not really strategic. You can skip that and delegate crunching it to others.
Master delegation - 1 minute manager, etc. - read at least one short book about it. Don't fall into micromanagement trap.
'Team Geek' is a great primer on technical leadership: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920018025.do
Another recommended book is 'Shipping Greatness': http://shippinggreatness.com
Assuming you're already familiar with 'The Lean Startup', there has been a series of excellent 'sequels' on many more specific disciplines that you will likely find useful: http://theleanstartup.com/the-lean-series
A recent addition (that I am still digesting) on Agile processes beyond Scrum is 'Unblock!': http://www.continuousagile.com/unblock/ (Posted to HN a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921200)
It is necessary to not do great projects and not pursue great ideas, because of scarcity of resources: the organization cannot undertake all of the good and great ideas it encounters.
There is nearly no organization that is not over-committed in its operations. This is constant, challenging, and avoidable problem.
Actively deciding not to do a project, or not follow a particular line of effort...instead of failing, by default to give enough resources or effort to an idea or project aids the organization to focus and excel in particular well-chosen areas. And avoid being mediocre in multiple areas and spread thin as an organization, by actively choosing to do less. What great project will you abandon, to focus on the other great projects you're already doing?
Mission statements fail to inform about what the organization will NOT do. A strategy does.
* Stuck: Why It’s So Hard to Do New Things in Old Organizations (recorded lecture, December 6, 2007)
By Rebecca M. Henderson, (now at Harvard Business School) formerly Eastman Kodak LFM Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Video lecture (skip the first 15 minutes) (total time one hour) http://video.mit.edu/watch/stuck-why-its-so-hard-to-do-new-t...
http://www.amazon.com/Servant-Leadership-Legitimate-Greatnes...
Go on to reading the Toyota management style in itself, there's a couple of books about it, that's what many IT techiques are getting their ideas from.
It's mostly about finding your values so to speak and pinpoint what you really think makes up a good software development company - maybe your focus will be on organization, maybe on other things, so get an overview first.
These two articles are hopefully also an interesting nudge to think about many things:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137708/Opinion_The_u...
http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-lin...
O'Reilly has a very interesting book with analysis which practices actually work and why/how - sadly I also forget the title. There's for example a chapter about when and why pair programming works and when and why not.
Also, just watch carefully and learn to notice "good organization" - happens in surprising corners and niches and try to see WHY it's good.
Dreaming in Code, by Scott Rosenberg. Highest recommendation. 10x coders hired by visionary engineer to scratch their own itch. What could go wrong?
2nd Article "Leverage Points" http://www.donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-place...
after these two you will have enough know-how on how to identify and manage systems (i.e.: your growing company)
then the only thing between you and success is reality, for how to influence the company reality you live in please read
3rd "Seeing Systems" http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Systems-Unlocking-Mysteries-Org...
good luck and have fun (with the books, with your new responsibilities)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6398792-growing-software
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6233608-software-product-...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13705334-enterprise-softw...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6278270-the-principles-of...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9706236-management-3-0
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17278287-the-founder-s-di...
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Minds-Technology-Officers-Peopl...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1118443667/ref=as_li_ss_t...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Essential-Drucker-Management-Ess...
https://www.coursera.org/course/strategy101
Probably not too late to catch up.
I'd suggest some general "business strategy" works that will help you understand the context of how/why the very highest level business decisions are made, as well as some works that deal with tying together strategy and tactical execution (which includes technical initiatives).
1. Understanding Michael Porter - John Magretta. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essential...
Porter's framework is VERY influential in the business world, and having at least a passing familiarity with his work is important at the higher levels. Going straight to the primary sources (Porter's books) can be a bit daunting as they are big, dry, and academic and not exactly what you'd call "page turners". This book is a fairly solid overview of the key elements of Porter's approach, and a good read before diving into the meat of Porter's works.
2. Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Indust...
3. Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain...
4. On Competition - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/On-Competition-Updated-Expanded-Editio...
5. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - Richard Rumelt. http://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/d...
6. Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Compet... This book has its critics, but I think it's a worthwhile read. Some people argue against the whole idea of a "blu e ocean" market, but even if the authors aren't 100% right about everything, I think the lines of thinking this book fosters are valuable in a general sense.
7. The Discipline of Market Leaders. http://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Market-Leaders-Customers-Do... I think very highly of this book and the author's approach to strategy. It's not radically different from the Porterian approach in some ways, but I'd say it's narrower in focus and simpler. The big takeway is the idea (which should be obvious, but often isn't) that "you can't be everything to everyone". The authors push a model of choosing a market discipline to appeal to a certain type of customer, and making that discipline the core of your business.
8. The Machine That Changed The World. http://www.amazon.com/Machine-That-Changed-World-Revolutioni... Have you ever wondered what this "lean" stuff is all about? Or why Toyota is so revered by business leaders? Here's a good place to find the answer to those questions.
9. Working Knowledge- Davenport and Prusak. http://www.amazon.com/Working-Knowledge-Thomas-H-Davenport/d... Perhaps the seminal book on Knowledge Management, or at least one of them. If you want to understand the importance of knowledge in an organization, this is a very valuable read.
10. Outside Innovation - Patricia Seybold. http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Innovation-Customers-Co-Design...
11. The Future of Competition. http://www.amazon.com/Future-Competition-Co-Creating-Unique-...
12. The Balanced Scorecard. http://www.amazon.com/Balanced-Scorecard-Translating-Strateg...
13. Strategy Maps. http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Maps-Converting-Intangible-Ta...
14. The Strategy Focused Organization. http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Focused-Organization-Scorecar...
15. If Only We Knew What We Know. http://www.amazon.com/Only-Knew-What-Know-Knowledge/dp/14516... Another seminal title in the Knowledge Management world.
16. Common Knowledge - Nancy Dixon. http://www.amazon.com/Common-Knowledge-Companies-Thrive-Shar... Another seminal title in the Knowledge Management world.
17. Winning The Knowledge Transfer Race. http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Knowledge-Transfer-Michael-Eng...
If you are looking for reading material, consider putting the books "Execution" and "Facing Reality" (by Larry Bossidy with Ram Charan) on your list. I found these to be a good concise description of some of the more 'meta' aspects of senior leadership.
[1] http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Technical_Leader.html
Six Thinking Hats - best way to think like an analyst (and to lead meetings that are effective)
Both of these are killer and quick and easy books.
He's been writing on Management for 4 decades and he's opened my eyes to what management is about. http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Henry-Mintzberg/dp/1605098744
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-MBA-Skills-Further-Faster/dp/...
The successful role models in my life have a keen ability to at least relatively measure large, nebulous things. For thinking in probabilities and ways to gauge intangibles like "effectiveness" I think this book is excellent.
Some people find it too academic but it covers pretty much all of the essentials of strategy and business policy practices.
I am not sure you can learn how to think from a book, but the recommendations here can be good to "know what you don't know."
Maybe the best question you should be asking is not what to read, but what problems you can solve you have not solved before. Here is one constraint: if you can solve it yourself, and not through others, then it is not a very interesting problem.
Wax on. Wax off.
Obviously a book won't do. You need a training montage.
